Hair Loss Myths

posted by ISHRS on February 3, 2013

Myths about hair loss.
You’ve probably been a part of a conversation like this—maybe around the holidays or at a bar with some friends. One friend will tell you: “Jim is losing his hair because he wears a hat all day on the job.”
Usually, comments like that are met with quiet acceptance. Absent with facts at your finger tips, you may be hard pressed to argue with that. But the hat myth, as well as others, makes the rounds frequently. Normally, these are harmless tidbits that don’t have any major effect on health care attitudes about hair loss. However, as a body of surgeons who rely on facts and science to base our practice of medicine on, members of the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery would like to take the time to also debunk these myths on causes of hair loss:

Poor circulation

Clogged hair follicles

Frequent shampooing

Presence of mites

Stress (not including stress associated with severe anxiety and other medical traumas)

So, the next time you are caught in a conversation about hair loss, you can kindly inform your friends that in an overwhelming number of cases, the cause is hereditary male pattern baldness. And if you really want to wow them, tell your friends the scientific name is androgenetic alopecia (for more information, see our Women Hair Loss Causes article).
What’s the craziest myth you’ve heard for hair loss?

It's also important to combat the myths surrounding hair loss treatments. I find many patients believe that minoxidil and finasteride are useless or alternatively believe that finasteride will immediately make you impotent.

Generally media treatment of hairloss issues too often revolves arround mocking men who are losing their hair rather than eductaing them about causes and treatments, well done to the ISHRS for the web site design and articles on the front page addressing this!